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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26717449">Day Four</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkFiddler/pseuds/TheDarkFiddler'>TheDarkFiddler</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RADCrawl</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Brandon Leon-Gambetta</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:48:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>743</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26717449</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkFiddler/pseuds/TheDarkFiddler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Arastina and Jefreth discuss their plans for the upcoming day of dungeon delving, but a prophecy looms over Jefreth's head.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jefrestina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Day Four</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Arastina smiled to herself as she heard the cheering and partying outside her inn room slowly coming to an end. It wasn't that she wasn't interested, but that was for younger adventurers. She'd been a member of The Fortunate for some time now, she knew what it was all about, and frankly it wasn't worth being hungover tomorrow just to pass around drinks for five hours. Nah, get a bit more rest, be ready for whatever was waiting for her on floor two tomorrow.</p><p>And then Jefreth came barging into the room, letting the light in from outside. Partying and noise outside of the room was one thing, but a disturbance IN the room was another thing entirely. She opened her eyes and glanced over at her friend, who seemed... not especially drunk for being a new inductee. "What's wrong," she smirked, "The Smiths not heavy drinkers?" Jefreth jumped a bit, obviously not expecting her to be awake, before sheepishly closing the door behind them.</p><p>"Ah, well, maybe you're rubbing off on me a bit, grandma," they shot back with a smile plastered on their face. "C'mon, you're not feeling like drinking tonight, either? You're, like, a year and half older than us." Arastina snorted.</p><p>"Hey, I may only be like a year and a half older than you all but I seem to have a better grasp on what happens in the Dungeon. I can drink some other time, but if I'm sober going in tomorrow, then I'm ready for whatever we see." Jefreth knew this already, of course. The two of them had had this conversation plenty of times. Arastina had stopped drinking weeks ago, when her first adventuring party had met their doom at the hands of the Dungeon. She didn't talk about it much, but Jefreth and Arastina had grown close already over the past few trips into their own Dungeon, she they'd discussed it once or twice.</p><p>"Right, or... whoever we see." Jefreth shook their head as they began dressing down for bed. "Hey, 'stina, when Freth, uh, crawled his last.." Jefreth let their sentence trail off, but Arastina sat up from her bed as if they'd just stabbed her. Not from the pain of the memory, but from the pain she felt in their voice.</p><p>"No," she said, trying to answer the question she guessed went unasked. "It was nothing like what happened with Wibgirt. That's something... else entirely." She strained to see her friend's expression in the dark, and considered lighting a candle. Would that just make things more awkward at the moment?</p><p>"That's good. I'd never heard of... anything like that. I don't know, it still says it's Wibgirt, it still looks like Wibgirt, but..." Jefreth stopped, their undershirt still clinging to one shoulder as they seemed to run out of energy. Arastina kicked her feet out over the edge of the bed and stepped up.</p><p>"Hey, Jefreth, I get it. Once you see something like that, it can be... tough." She reached out towards her friend and stopped, letting her hand fall back down. "If you don't want to go tomorrow..."</p><p>"No! I do! Just..." Arastina thought she heard his voice catch, the telltale breathing catch of somebody about to start crying, but they seemed to have pushed that back down, for better or worse. "You're right, I guess. Better to stay sober, stay sharp, and be ready for tomorrow. Better to stay alive."</p><p>"Yeah, that's what I'm saying!" She lost herself for a second in the joy of finally having one of the others accept her advice, before remembering her friend's somber mood. "Listen, I've got your back," she said as she came up behind them and shook her wrist, the friendship bracelet they shared jingling and jangling. "I won't let you die, and I know you won't let me die. We got each other."</p><p>"'stina, I..." Jefreth reached up and touched the bracelet, their own catching what little light there was in the room. "That means a lot, but I can't help but think I'm going to be the death of you."</p><p>"Nonsense," she shot back almost immediately, wrapping her arms around them and holding tight. "We got this. You and me, to the end. Whatever's at the end." Jefreth's tense body relaxed into the hug and they leaned back into the pressure.</p><p>"Yeah, it's just one day, right? One day, and then we'll be on to the rest of the adventure."</p>
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